


My Sunflower

by TheMetalVetruvian



Series: Same Verse Ambiguity [1]
Category: The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: Angst, Flowers!, Hurt and comfort, M/M, Steve Feels, Teleportation, Tony Feels, character injury
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-24
Updated: 2017-06-24
Packaged: 2018-11-18 06:11:17
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,332
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11285310
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheMetalVetruvian/pseuds/TheMetalVetruvian
Summary: Tony is injured and Steve is teleported mid-battle to a sunflower field in California. Can't anything ever be easy?Prompt: Steve bringing Tony flowers bc Tony is a "secret" romantic and really genuinely loves them.





	My Sunflower

**Author's Note:**

> The amazing snoozingcat gave me this prompt on Tumblr, thank you!
> 
> All mistakes are mine!

The uniform sticks to Steve’s skin with sweat. The sun is high in the sky, the temperature a staggering 110 degrees. Steve sits in the grass, up against a tree, trying to find a comfortable position where his uniform doesn’t dig into his ribs and where he can hide from the sun the most. Earlier, he had jammed his shield part way into a tree to provide himself some shade to sit under.

His beacon beeps on and off beside him, location pinging to the other Avengers who, he assumed, is well over a thousand miles away in battle.

God damn transporter guns.

“How you hangin’ in there, Captain?” Says Clint, voice nearly shrouded in static in his ear.

“Fine. ETA?” He messes around with the pocket knife in his hands, eyeing the field of sunflowers in front of him. On any other day, Steve would have marveled at it’s beauty. But now, he just wants to get home to Tony.

“One hour. Quinjet en route.” There’s a pause, the open line of static loud and telling, “Tony is stable. The hit was rough, but he only has a concussion. The hospital will watch him until you give the A-Okay for his release.” Not that Tony ever waits for his approval before leaving the hospital. Steve sighs, leaning his head back on the tree, his hair tickling the bottom of the shield.

“Okay. Keep me updated. I feel like I’m going to have a heat stroke here.” He pulls at the collar of his uniform, the heat seeping through almost suffocating.

“Sit still, we’ll be there soon.”

-

“Sit still.” 

A hand is put on his shoulder, and Tony knows something is going on but the whole world is spinning and he needs to move, needs to get it to stop, needs to throw up, oh God-

He lurches, and thinks there’s a bucket below him that he’s throwing up into. Someone’s holding the bucket? Natasha? He breathes, mouth tasting foul. An eye is forced open and a light shines through.

“Pupil’s dilated.” 

He rears his head back, and there’s a pillow beneath his head. His hands come up to cradle the sides of his face, “S’big hurt, wow.” He murmurs, eyes unable to focus or stay open.

“Shhh, yes. It’s a big hurt. Tony, listen to me, can you open your eyes?” And he tries, he does. When his eyes open, he feels sick but he fights it down, “Do you know where you are?”

“No?” He says, eyes sweeping around the room. Everything is blurry, and it feels like his eyes are rolling around inside his head.

“You’re in the hospital. Do you remember what happened? Can you sit up for me?”

His eyes find their way to Natasha again, and he tries to sit up. But his hands can’t seem to find purchase. So she helps.

“You hit the ground pretty hard. We need to make sure there’s no brain swelling, okay? 

“Okay.” Tony can tell that there must be a pretty big bruise, because Natasha can’t stop looking at the side of his face. He just hopes his head will stop hurting soon.

-

When Steve presses just hard enough on the switch, a blade swings free from it’s casing and clicks. The knife stands proud, sharp and serrated for extra damage. 

But it’s small. And Steve doesn’t think it’s big enough to cut through the stem of the sunflower that’s as wide as two of his thumbs. But he puts the blade to the stem and cuts through, the flower separates with a ‘snap’. Tony would like being here. He makes a pile of ten sunflowers. He thinks they’ll look nice in a round clear vase. Their weight, evenly distributed, will look pretty. He thinks Tony will enjoy them, he always tends to. But it’s been a while since they’ve-

Guilt sways heavily in his stomach. 

Last night, between soft whispers and gentle touches, Tony kissed his lips and asked him to join him for dinner. They haven’t been out in months, and Steve had been gone on a mission for two months. He could see it in Tony’s eyes, how much he missed him.

The guilt churns his stomach, and he feels sick.

Tony hit the ground hard after being swat from the sky like a fly. Steve knew when he immediately didn’t get up that something was wrong. The air was knocked out of him, at the least. And then, there was the bad guy with the transporter weapon. Tony struggled to get to his feet, staggering, and Steve steps in front of him, and then he feels light as air and everything’s blue and it reminds him of the ice.

And now he’s here, thousands of miles away, in a sunflower field. Sun beaming at him from overhead and it’s a strange comfort.

There’s a strange ‘womp-womp-womp’ and Steve knows it’s the Quinjet. It comes in from behind him, bending the sunflowers almost past their breaking point. Steve stands there with his sunflowers in his hands, his shield still stuck in the tree, and hopes the Quinjet lands away from the field.

-

“Steve will be here soon.” Natasha tells him, holding a cold packet against the back of his neck to soothe his headache. 

Tony slouches over, hands on his knees, and looks at the clock, “Res’rvat’ns at 8…”

Natasha laughs and removes the pack from his neck and running her hand through his hair, “I’m sure Steve will understand.”

“Mmm…” He groans, eyes closing. Natasha nudges his shoulders, prompting his eyes to open again, “S’tired…”

“I know… Stay awake. You want to see Steve, right?”

He nods, and Natasha helps him up so he can walk over to the chair next to the window. 

There’s a change in pressure, and a subtle ‘womp’ing hum coming from the window. Tony looks up, over at Natasha, and smiles.

-

Steve steps down on the landing pad, and makes a bee-line for the door that leads to the stairwell and hospital floors. Hospital and SHIELD personnel step in to give him the low-down, but Steve’s been here a thousand times before. So he allows a doctor to walk beside him, tell him Tony’s condition, and what room number he is in, before leading him through the hallways. 

He gets to the room: 435 posted to the right of the door, which is slightly open. Natasha is in his periphery, grabbing something from the vending machine and pretending not to watch Steve. He nudges open the door, and sees a figure silhouetted by the window.

“Steve.” The figure says, voice slurred but warm. Tony is relaxed in a chair, a bruise decorating the right side of his face from his temple towards his jaw. Steve is paralyzed, for a moment, sunflowers clutched in his hand. He watches as the sun sets behind Tony.

“Are you okay?” He says, voice barely above a whisper.

Tony nods. 

It breaks Steve out of his trance. He drops to Tony’s side and brings up the flowers as an offering. Tony looks down at him, eyes crinkling at the corners as he smiles and grasps them, holding onto the hand that Steve has wrapped around them as well, “M’sorry we missed our date…”

“It’s okay.” Steve smiles in return, pressing a kiss to the uninjured side of Tony’s head, “We can reschedule. I was thinking a picnic.” He presses another kiss before assessing the damage to the side of his face, “I know a beautiful field in California we can go to.”

“Okay,” Their eyes meet, and Steve releases a breath he didn’t know he’d been holding since he was transported. Tony turns his head towards the sunset, and the warmth bathes on his face, easing his features. It reminds Steve of the sunflowers in his hands, their open faces brilliant and hopeful. Tony holds the flowers to his chest, a blush on his face that Steve has never seen before.

“We’ll need sunscreen though.”

**Author's Note:**

> Shameless Tumblr plug:
> 
> http://themetalvitruvian.tumblr.com/


End file.
